NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

This Instagram image from the International Space Station was posted on April 9 with the caption: "Blood, sweat, but hopefully no tears."

Credit: International Space Station consortium

An astronaut on the International Space Station recently made a giant leap into the social media world with the first Instagram photo beamed down from space.

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson posted a selfie taken in the station's cupola, a large, multi-sided window that faces Earth, as the first Instagram photo sent from space.

The photo posted to the station's Instagram account (ISS) on April 7, and since then, it has garnered nearly 4,000 "likes."

"Back on the ISS, life is good," Swanson wrote in an image caption. The veteran astronaut flew to space before during two previous space shuttle missions.

In the photo, Swanson is wearing a shirt featuring a spaceship from one of his favorite TV shows, "Firefly," a short-lived show about a crew of space cowboys that traverse the universe looking for smuggling work where they can get it.

Swanson brought a box set of "Firefly" DVDs up to the station during one of his previous space shuttle missions.